There's certainly plenty of resources about how to be a mentor, how to pick a mentor, or why to seek out mentorship in the first place, but what about tips about how to be a good mentee? Here's a spreadsheet I use to keep track of mentorship commitments and make sure I show up as a good mentee!

We are in a period of reflection and atonement in the Jewish ritual calendar, so here is an Al Chet (collective confession) for the sins we, as database administrators, have committed. Add your own in the comments!

On a pragmatic level, I offer 6.5 concrete ideas for interfaith solidarity in databases. On a conceptual level, I explore how databases built to promote religious tolerance can lead to behavioral change. What else is possible if we build systems that accommodate and celebrate the fabulous diversity of our communities? Thanks to colleague and mentor Andy Kirshner from IFYC for exploring these ideas with me over dumplings and bubble tea (the way to my heart!)

Address management can have as many pitfalls as Philadelphia streets have potholes! In this post, I explore best practices for keeping track of addresses, thanks to many of YOU! for writing in with questions to Dear Spreadsheet Whisperer.

Part 3 in a mini-series exploring the great, big world of “de-duping” – or, how to handle repeated info in a spreadsheet or database. In this installment: using Microsoft Excel to highlight duplicates and summarize data.

Like contact sports, "Contact Segmentation" has rules to learn and skills to develop... and sometimes it can make you feel sore/grumpy/bruised. In this post, I offer 4 "Rules of the Game" and 3 Skills that will help you make it to the clean data finish line.